An excerpt from La Tosca, the play by Victorien Sardiou upon which Puccini's opera was based. Originally written for Sarah Bernhardt and premiered at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, the play was performed during La Berhnardt's London tour of 1888.

This scene was one of four from late-Victorian melodramas that were produced from October 30-November 1, 2009, as part of the "Halloween Vaudevilles," a showcase of recreations of 19th-century performance events by doctoral students studying the theatre of that period. The originator of these scenes was Justin Blum, whose dissertation analyzed the way that the theatrical culture of London contributed to public understandings of the 1888 "Jack the Ripper" murders.

Credits:

La Tosca: Sasha Kovacs

Scarpia: Art Babayants

Translation/Adaptation: Justin A. Blum

A peer-reviewed article about the entire project in which this excerpt from La Tosca was included was published in the journal Theatre Topics,